Chairwoman of TH Group, Thai Huong, declared that if the German are proud of the BMW brand, and the Japanese with Sony, then the Vietnamese have the right to be proud of the fresh milk branded TH True Milk.

What makes TH true Milk most famous among milk products in Vietnam? According to experts, it is because TH Group has built the very first foundation for developing the fresh milk industry in Vietnam, with which a revolution in fresh and clean milk has been launched in the local market.

To produce fresh milk, TH Group bought state-of-the-art technology and the technique from Israel to breed milk cows. The group has established a professional network with direct management of two multinational groups, the Afikim from Israel which specialises in breeding milk cows, and the Totally Vets from New Zealand in veterinary medicine. The entire production chain has been formed and implemented strictly under the supervision of TH Group’s professional experts and managers.

Formerly, the Phu Quy Plateau in central Nghe An Province was filled with sunshine and hot wind from Laos, and among the poorest desert area in Vietnam. However, since 2009 things have changed unexpectedly. Visitors travelling along the Ho Chi Minh Road and crossing this locality are surprised when seeing vast green grass fields, which are called “European grass fields in central Vietnam”. They are farms to supply raw materials for milk cows producing TH true Milk products.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, an officer of TH True Milk Plant accompanied us by car to tour the vast grass fields of over 4,000ha which supply feed to the milk cows.

Hung said that in harvest time, grass is collected by machines. There are “two-in-one” grass cutting and chopping machines operating in the fields. Grass is then transported by carts to the farms. All the steps are done by machines. Hung also said that grass strains are imported from Australia and planted under European technology and quality standards.

TH Group has a milk cow breeding farm covering more than 8,000ha. It has been recognised by the Asia Book of Records as “Asia’s biggest centralised dairy farm with hi-tech applications”.

TH true Milk is the sole cow breeding and milk processing entrepreneur in Vietnam that is recognised as an “agricultural entrepreneur with hi-tech applications” by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

When we arrived at the farm, the cows were having their second milking of the day. Ho Quang Tuan, an officer of the milk collection section said that TH True Milk Plant’s milking chain is operated under standardised norms. Accordingly, if fresh milk does not meet the set standards, the network will send out warnings and make suggestions to adjust the feed to the cows so that their milk will meet the quality norms.

When the cows are being milked, they listen to symphonies, which helps them relax and thus can produce the best quality milk. A cow can produce, on average, from 30-40 litres of milk per day. Each cow is tagged with a chip which produces a warning if the cow has some breast inflammation. In such a case, the milking machine will automatically stop working, and thanks to this kind of chip the cows’ milk is always ensured to be clean and not infected with impurities.

After milking the cows, it will be filtered again to get all the invisible impurities off. Then, it will be stored in tanks at 3-4 degrees Celsius, and transported to the processing factory.

Nguyen Quoc Toan, head of the labor safety section took us on a tour around the factory, which is equipped with modern facilities imported from Germany, Italy and Sweden with the G7’s standards. We were told that TH Fresh Milk Plant has been listed as the largest one of its kind in Southeast Asia. European visitors to the plant recognised TH true Milk’s quality as the same as European standards.

The TH true Milk project, which costs 1.2 billion dollars and covers 37,000 hectares of land, is to date the largest one in Vietnam’s agricultural sector. Its proper investment in cow breeding, grass growing and milk processing has made TH Group the first business in Vietnam which is capable of ensuring the local input materials without any imports.

A modern watering system is used to grow grass to feed milk cows on Phu Quy Plateau,
which is dubbed a “European grass field in central Vietnam”, in Nghia Dan District, Nghe An Province.
Photo: Trong Chinh/VNP

The field of sunflowers grown to supply feed for milk cows. Photo: Sy Minh

A representative of TH Group presents milk to a hospital in Lao Xiang Khouang Province. Photo: Sy Minh

In 2014, TH Group earned a revenue of over four trillion dong, which is expected to reach six trillion dong in 2015. The Group targets 23 trillion dong in revenue by 2017, which will account for 50 percent of local consumption. To date, TH true Milk products have been registered in more than 60 countries around the world.

At an international workshop on hi-tech applications and substantial development in Vietnam’s fresh milk industry, it is accounted that the first achievement in the TH Group’s “revolution” is to curb Vietnam’s imported dairy ingredients from 92% (by 2009) to 70% (2014) after the Group entered into Vietnam’s dairy market.